Oh Snap! Your Business Needs to Take Snapchat Seriously

Think Snapchat is just a digital playground for kids? Think again! Once used exclusively by the younger generation, Snapchat is quickly gaining momentum as the next biggest thing for businesses in terms of serving as an incredibly effective marketing tool. Just have a look at the numbers. It is estimated that over 7 billion photos and videos, or “snaps,” are shared on Snapchat every day. Roughly 8,796 snaps are sent per second. And with over 166 million users, businesses can no longer overlook Snapchat as a great potential to grow and strengthen their brand. In fact, recent trends show that the popular video and photo-sharing app is quickly becoming the latest marketing platform used among both large and small companies.

According to its founders, Snapchat was intentionally designed to be a conversational tool with which users could share stories—rather than content—with their audience. These stories, in the form of “snaps,” could be viewed and would then automatically disappear, mimicking the ebb and flow of real moments in our lives. Because of this unique feature, combined with its casual, upbeat vibe, it became wildly popular with the younger generation. However, it is also because of this feature that it naturally lends itself to being a great marketing tool for businesses.

If you are thinking about marketing on Snapchat, some considerations to take a look into are your target audience demographics, the objectives of your marketing program, your budget, and how your brand is performing on other social media platforms.

Want to get in on the trend while it’s still cutting-edge? Here are some great ways to utilize Snapchat to effectively market your business.

Fully embrace the photo/video feature.

Snapchat’s unique platform allows users to weave photos with video, and customize them by employing fonts, digital crayons, and filters. This results in extremely vivid, media-rich content that tends to stick with the viewer much more than standard photos or text. Start your business’s “story” to give your audience an in-depth look at who you are, what you do, and why they should become invested in your brand.

Put your lenses on.

Snapchat’s “lenses” are digital enhancements that the user can overlay onto a snap, thereby enhancing the image in a fun, whimsical way. This feature can bring big results to companies looking to increase brand awareness. For a fee, businesses can sponsor lenses advertising their product. This lens will be available to users to fully engage with the brand (and subsequently broaden its reach) as they employ it on their snaps.

Establish Geofilters.

Geofilters are a great way for businesses or organizations to advertise local events or promote certain causes. Using a location-based filter, users can employ specific graphics pertaining to their location on their snaps. This is a great way for your business to drive a campaign on either a national or a more location-specific level.

Create Snap Ads.

With its ability to catch and hold the attention of nearly double the number of viewers as compared to Facebook ads, a Snapchat ad offers 10 full seconds of video with optional audio, to which advertisers can add interactive attachments for users to engage with while within the app. This highly interactive advertising option allows users to fully engage with your brand, allowing businesses to enjoy a great ROI.

Get creative.

Here is where Snapchat pulls to the forefront in terms of its creativity and versatility as a great marketing tool. Capitalizing on its fun, spontaneous, and easygoing vibe, Snapchat offers a great platform for marketers to get really creative with campaigns. One such tactic that has produced great results for larger corporations is Snapchat “takeovers.” This involves companies handing over their Snapchat accounts for the day to an employee, intern or other influencer. Obviously not done without some basic prearranged ground rules, this tactic allows the target audience to see authentic promotion of your brand while also keeping the material fresh, unique, and engaging. In this way, companies can also offer promo codes, run special promotions, or offer their target audience sneak previews or a look behind the scenes.

If you are looking for the next greatest thing in marketing, Snapchat may be your answer! This immersive video and image advertising experience is truly what affords Snapchat a leg up on its competition and inherently allows those who advertise through this medium a significantly more powerful, and thusly effective, marketing campaign. Before you get started, remember that the nature of Snapchat is light and fun, but highly engaging. Try to keep your material within these parameters organically. Additionally, don’t overwhelm your audience with material- try to post 3-4 times per day, about 3-4 hours apart. The best part is that you shouldn’t take posting too seriously! If you are enjoying the process and letting your creative juices flow, your audience will too. And that can only mean great things for marketing your business.

Brockett Creative Group has been delivering best-in-class website, marketing, and branding services to our clients for over 15 years. For more information about our services, or to get started with a Snapchat marketing campaign for your business, contact us today!